Many Thai companies invest in Ben Tre

Thailand is the leading country to have the most companies investing in Ben Tre, according to the Ben Tre's Planning and Investment Department's Investment Promotion Center (Ben Tre IPC).

Beside the Alliance One Limited Company, there are many other companies that are waiting for land delivery or in the process of applying for licences to invest in the Giao Long Industrial Park and An Hiep Industrial Zone â€“ the province's first and largest industrial areas.

One of these companies, Eagle Speed Thailand, specialised in outdoor sportswear manufacture, has signed a memorandum with the Ben Tre Infrastructure Developing Company about a land lease of 10 hectares to build sportswear and electronics factories.

The next one is Tong Siang company, which is specialised in textiles accessories. The company has officially submitted its application for investment licence and land lease of 6 hectares to build textile and dye factories. In the first phase of the project, the company plans to invest US$15 million, and would increase to US$80 million in the fifth year of investment.

Another one is Liberty Thailand, the packaging manufacturing company that is awaiting for its licence to construct a factory in the Giao Long Industrial Park. Once gone into operation, the company would supply for garment and textile facotries in Ben Tre and for export.

Before all these companies, the CP Thailand company has already signed a contract to lease 12.4 hectares of land in the An Hiep Industrial Zone to invest in a factory of aquafeed to supply for the markets of Ben Tre as well as the whole Mekong Delta region. The total investment fund for the project is US$45 million. Leased land is planned to be delivered in September, 2007, so the company can deploy its project.

For Alliance One Co. Ltd., after 5 months of construction, most features of its first 20,000-sqm factory are now in the finishing stage. The construction works cost totally US$3.2 million. Some of the supporting features such as lighting and air-conditioning systems, and production equipment and instruments are being hurriedly instralled so that the first 4 production lines could be timely put into operation. For the first stage of production, the company plans to process sportswear products for worldly-known brandname such as Nike, Adidas, and Puma. It has recruited about 900 workers to work at its facilities in the Giao Long IP.